Lyrics

When I was a child my family would travelDown to Western Kentucky where my parents were bornAnd there's a backwards old town that's often rememberedSo many times that my memories are worn

"And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg CountyDown by the green river where paradise lay?""Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in askingMister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away"

Well, sometimes we'd travel right down the Green RiverTo the abandoned old prison down by Adrie HillWhere the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistolsBut empty pop bottles was all we would kill

"And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg CountyDown by the green river where paradise lay?""Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in askingMister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away"

Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovelAnd they tortured the timber and stripped all the landWell, they dug for their coal till the land was forsakenThen they wrote it all down as the progress of man

"And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg CountyDown by the green river where paradise lay?""Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in askingMister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away"

When I die let my ashes float down the Green RiverLet my soul roll on up to the Rochester damI'll be halfway to Heaven with paradise waitin'Just five miles away from wherever I am

"And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg CountyDown by the green river where paradise lay?""Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in askingMister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away"

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